Olympic defeat heaps pressure on Menezes

Olympic defeat heaps pressure on Menezes

Mike Tuckerman

Timing, as they say, is everything. It's a good thing Brazil had a friendly against Sweden to focus on just four days after losing the gold medal match at the Olympics to Mexico, because otherwise coach Mano Menezes would almost certainly have been out of a job. Olympic football might routinely be written off by the European media, but in Brazil winning Olympic gold is now akin to a quest for the holy grail.

History will show Menezes' Olympic team lost 2-1 to Mexico at a packed Wembley in the final of the London Games, to extend Brazil's gold medal drought for another four years. It wasn't supposed to end that way, but then it was hardly a surprise Brazil's collection of talented individuals came unstuck against a limited but hard-working collective. When 28-year-old Mexican striker Oribe Peralta scored inside 40 seconds it meant Brazil needed to ignore the high-pressure stakes and come from behind to win a major final - a task which ultimately proved beyond them.

That winning Olympic football gold is now a national obsession in Brazil makes perfect sense. It is, after all, the only major football trophy Brazil has never won, despite reaching the final in 1984, 1988 and once again in London. There were hopes the drought might end in Beijing four year years ago but the Selecao were hammered 3-0 in the semi-finals by a Lionel Messi-inspired Argentina - who duly failed to qualify for the London Games. That meant Brazil were red-hot favourites to claim a first-ever gold medal in this year's men's tournament, only for Mexico to derail the plans and put Menezes under immense pressure.

The problem for the 50-year-old tactician is not the fact Brazil must now wait until the 2016 Olympics in Rio to rectify the lack of an Olympic gold medal, but rather what happens at a far more significant tournament two years earlier. With Brazil also hosting the 2014 World Cup, expectations are high that world football's most celebrated national team will win the tournament on home soil. But just as in 1950, when the highly-rated Brazilians were stunned in the World Cup final by Uruguay, there are already signs the 2014 tournament may not go according to plan.

Perhaps Menezes' greatest quandary is his inability to get the best out of playmaker Neymar. The 20-year-old Santos superstar showed all the flicks, tricks and skills which have come to define his game in London, but the impish midfielder went missing in the final against Mexico. He wasn't helped by his team-mates - who routinely fed him the ball under pressure against a Mexican side determined to close down space - but the jury is still out on whether the highly touted youngster can become the gamebreaker Brazil so desperately needs.

Swiftly putting aside his London disappointment, Neymar set up the opener for Leandro Damiao against Sweden at the Rasunda Stadium in Stockholm. But those hoping for a glimpse of the beautiful game will have been left disappointed by the nature of Brazil's goals against a Swedish side for whom captain Zlatan Ibrahimovic was out injured, with Neymar's 32nd minute cross headed home at the far post by the in-form Damiao.

There were two more scrappy goals to come - one an Alexandre Pato header for which the Milan striker was clearly offside, and another which saw Pato convert a contentiously awarded penalty. If Brazil's performance was supposed to be a resounding response to their Olympic defeat, it failed to convince.

At least it was a victory for Menezes, who in previous friendlies had seen his side lose to familiar foes Mexico and Argentina. That wouldn't be such a problem if it wasn't for the fact Brazil will not play more competitive football until the 2013 Confederations Cup. And judging by recent results that could be a problem for a side struggling to meld after Menezes revamped the squad which so disappointed at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

Domestically, the Brazilian game is in rude health. Attendances may be poor but enough money has poured through club coffers over the past five years for players like Neymar and his Santos team-mate Paulo Henrique Ganso to delay their inevitable departures to Europe.

But the heartbeat of Brazilian football is the national team and though the Olympic tournament might nominally have been an under-23 event - with three overage players thrown in for good measure - failure to win the final won't have impressed the football mad nation.

It's a headache Menezes could have done without as he looks to steer the Selecao to glory on home soil in 2014. After taking over from the largely unpopular Carlos Dunga just two years ago, an Olympic gold medal would have bought Menezes enough time to assemble the squad of his choice for a World Cup tilt in front of home fans - regardless of performances between now and then.

As it stands, Peralta's 75th minute Wembley winner now leaves Menezes walking a managerial tightrope. It may be an under-appreciated tournament in Europe, but such is the difference between silver and gold when it comes to Olympic football in Brazil.

© Mike Tuckerman & Soccerphile.com